Abstract: An IC layout containing megacells placed in violation of design rules is corrected to remove design rule violations while maintaining the original placement as near as practical. The sizes of at least some of the megacells are inflated. The megacells are placed and moved in a footprint of the circuit in a manner to reduce placement complexity. The placement of the megacells is permuted to reduce placement complexity. Additional movements are be applied to the permuted placement to further reduce placement complexity.

Abstract: A method for enabling access to a resource shared by at least two processors over a bus that supports an atomic instruction, wherein a first processor does not support the atomic instruction, the method comprising the steps of providing an atomic instruction emulator coupled to the bus, the atomic instruction emulator including at least two register sets for implementing an atomic instruction; receiving by the emulator over the bus an emulation request from the first processor to perform the atomic instruction on the shared resource, the request including an address location; and performing by the emulator the atomic instruction for the processor using the data and the address location from the request.

Abstract: A system, circuit, and method are presented for adjusting a prefetch rate of a prefetch unit from a first rate to a second rate by determining a probability factor associated with a branch instruction. The circuit and method may determine the probability factor based on a type of disparity associated with the branch instruction. The circuit and method may further be adapted to calculate the second rate based on the probability factor. The ability to adjust the prefetch rate of a prefetch unit advantageously decreases the number of memory transactions, thereby decreasing the power consumption of a processing unit.

Abstract: An inventive semiconductor chip is provided. Generally, shallow trenches containing field oxide are provided on a substrate. At least one semiconductor device is formed between the shallow trenches. An oxide layer is formed over the at least one semiconductor device and the field oxide. An etch stop layer is formed over the oxide layer. An inter layer dielectric layer is formed over the etch stop layer. At least one contact hole is etched through the inter layer dielectric layer, the etch stop layer and at least partially through the oxide layer. The contact hole is filled with a conductive material.

Abstract: Provided are systems and methods for overcoming optical errors occurring from reticle and other hardware usage in a semiconductor fabrication apparatus. The systems and methods minimize optical errors, such as those resulting from gravitational sag on a reticle or mask, for a pattern being projected onto a wafer. The reduced errors allow larger reticles and masks to be used—while maintaining optical accuracy; and also improve optical budget management.

Abstract: A communications module for a data communications system having a plurality of data processors comprises a plurality of ports, each coupled to a respective one of the data processors. An address table associates addresses of a memory space to addresses of the data processors. The memory space may include addressable FIFOs, SRAM memory and/or flag registers. In the case of FIFOs, a counter coupled to the FIFO supplies a flag or ready signal indicating the not-full or not-empty status of the respective FIFO, which is supplied to a master device that is writing data to the FIFO or that is reading data from the FIFO so that the writing master device will write only when the FIFO is not full and the reading master device will read only when the FIFO is not empty.

Abstract: An apparatus generally having a circuit board and a first strain gauge is disclosed. The circuit board may have a plurality of insulating layers. The first strain gauge may be disposed between two of the insulating layers.

Abstract: An embedded redistribution interposer is disclosed for providing footprint compatible chip package migration in which a die designed to be mounted into chip package is originally implemented using a first type of silicon platform and is subsequently redesigned for a second type of silicon platform, resulting in a redesigned die being a different size than the original die and no longer compatible for mounting in the chip package. According to the present invention, the embedded redistribution interposer includes a substrate having a plurality of bond pads on a top side thereof, wherein the redesigned die is mounted to the top of the interposer substrate, and the bottom of the interposer substrate is mounted to the substrate of the chip package. The redesigned die is connected to the redistribution interposer via a first set of electrical connections coupled between the die and the interposer bond pads.

Abstract: A method is provided for selecting a frequency-based ramptime limit for a technology. The method includes creating a logic chain with cells from the technology and applying a sequence of signals to the logic chain. Each signal has a different ramptime relative to a clock period. At least one signal quality characteristic is measured along the logic chain for each of the signals. The frequency-based ramptime limit is selected based on a comparison of the measured signal quality characteristics measured to at least one predefined signal quality value.

Abstract: A process is provided for optimizing a clock net in the form of a tree having a root defined by a driver pin and a plurality of leaves defined by driven pins. The process includes forcing a first buffer to a center of gravity of the plurality of leaves, inserting a set of second buffers so each leaf is driven by an inserted buffer without timing violations, and moving the first buffer to a center of gravity of the set of second buffers.

Abstract: A phase shift mask having transmission properties that are dependent at least in part on an intensity of an incident light beam. The phase shift mask has a mask substrate that is substantially transparent to the incident light beam. A first phase shift layer is disposed on the mask substrate. The first phase shift layer has a refractive index that is nonlinear with the intensity of the incident light beam. The refractive index of the first phase shift layer changes with the intensity of the incident light beam on the phase shift mask. By using a first phase shift layer on the phase shift mask that has a refractive index that is non linear with the intensity of the incident light beam, properties of a light beam transmitted through the first phase shift layer, such as interference patterns in the transmitted light beam, can be adjusted by adjusting the intensity of the incident light beam.

Abstract: A method of forming via structures between a first electrically conductive layer and a second electrically conductive layer. The first electrically conductive layer is formed, and a dielectric layer is formed over the first electrically conductive layer. A first photoresist layer is formed over the dielectric layer, and patterned with a first via hole pattern. The first via hole pattern includes via holes that are all disposed within a first distance one from another, called dense via holes, and excludes via holes that are disposed at greater than the first distance one from another, called isolated via holes. The dense via holes are etched into the dielectric layer at first etch conditions until the dense via holes are properly formed, and the first photoresist layer is removed. A second photoresist layer is formed over the dielectric layer, and is patterned with a second via hole pattern. The second via hole pattern excludes dense via holes and includes isolated via holes.

Abstract: Clock uncertainty between a receiving cell and a launching cell of a net is estimated by back-tracing a first path from the receiving cell toward the clock source and marking each cell having a predetermined characteristic along the first path. A second path from the launching cell toward the clock source is back-traced to a common one of the marked cells having the predetermined characteristic. Clock uncertainty is calculated based on the portion of the first path from the common marked cell having the predetermined characteristic to the receiving cell. Clock uncertainty is calculated if a slack does not exceed a margin value. In one embodiment, a clock net in the form of a tree is optimized by forcing a first buffer to the center of gravity of a plurality of buffers having nets without timing violations to maximize a common path from the root to the forced buffer and minimize the non-common paths from the forced buffer to the leaves, thereby minimizing clock uncertainty.

Abstract: Methods and systems for automatically verifying a hardware design based on a hardware specification document. Hardware descriptions to be designed according to a hardware specification document are created. A document writer can follow a specified procedure including the use of register mao tables, address map tables and register descriptions to create the hardware descriptions. Flags are embedded in the document which document is then saved for use by internal/external engineers. The used document, which has been saved as a text-only file, is read by a document parsing utility which creates a database of hardware components. Physical components of the hardware device can then be compared with elements maintained within the database upon an initial power-up of the hardware device. RTL auto-generation and software auto-generation modules can be used to ensure that the RTL hardware description complies with the hardware specification.

Abstract: A decoder for access data stored in n memories comprises a function matrix containing addresses of the memory locations at unique coordinates. A decomposer sorts addresses from coordinate locations of first and second m×n matrices, such that each row contains no more than one address from the same memory. Positional apparatus stores entries in third and fourth m×n matrices identifying coordinates of addresses in the function matrix such that each entry in the third matrix is at coordinates that matches corresponding coordinates in the first matrix, and each entry in the fourth matrix is at coordinates that matches corresponding coordinates in the second matrix. The decoder is responsive to entries in the matrices for accessing data in parallel from the memories.

Abstract: The present disclosure is directed to ball assignment schemes for ball grid array packages in integrated circuits with increased signal count. The ball assignment scheme includes an array of electrical contacts. The array has a first diagonal including a pair of signal contacts adjacent to a pair of first-type voltage supply contacts. The array further includes a crossing diagonal having a pair of adjacent second-type voltage supply contacts, which crosses the first diagonal between the pair of signal contacts such that the pair of second-type voltage supply contacts oppose one another relative to the first diagonal.

Abstract: An apparatus for aligning a mask having an image and at least one complimentary alignment mark to a substrate having a first surface and a substantially opposing second surface. The substrate further has at least one alignment mark on the second surface. A mask support supports the mask in proximity to the first surface of the substrate. A substrate support supports the substrate with the first surface in proximity to the mask. An alignment means aligns the at least one alignment mark on the second surface of the substrate to the at least one complimentary alignment mark on the mask. An exposure source projects the image of the mask onto the first surface of the substrate, and a controller controls the mask support, substrate support, alignment means, and exposure source.

Abstract: Systems and methods are disclosed for controlling a display device having a display scan line rate by storing incoming data in a buffer, the buffer having a usage level measure; comparing the usage level to the display scan line rate; and adjusting a width of a display scan line to avoid buffer overflow or underflow. The system avoids a costly external frame buffer and automatically handles uncertainties such as jitter in input and output clocks when the system operates in different environments.

Abstract: A method and system for performing optical proximity correction (OPC) on an integrated circuit (IC) chip design is disclosed. The system and method of the present invention includes dividing the IC chip into a plurality of local task regions, identifying congruent local task regions, classifying congruent local task regions into corresponding groups, and performing OPC for each group of congruent local task regions. By identifying and grouping congruent local task regions in the IC chip, according to the method and system disclosed herein, only one OPC procedure (e.g., evaluation and correction) needs to be performed per group of congruent local task regions. The amount of data to be evaluated and the number of corrections performed is greatly reduced because OPC is not performed on repetitive portions of the IC chip design, thereby resulting in significant savings in computing resources and time.

Abstract: An apparatus comprising a first circuit and a second circuit. The first circuit may be configured to calculate and present an output signal having a first resolution in response to (i) an input signal having a second resolution and (ii) one or more control signals. The second circuit may be configured to generate the control signals in response to (i) a previous calculation by the first circuit and (ii) one or more input parameters. The first circuit may be configured to scale and filter the input signal.